Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the new This Week In Star Wars.
If you're new 'round these parts, This Week In Star Wars looks back at important moments in the creation of the Star Wars universe.
This week we have some big moments on the publishing side of things as well as some key birth and death dates. Let's get going!
August 10th, 1929 - Peter Diamond born.
Peter Diamond was a stunt coordinator and performer who was instrumental in creating the lightsaber fighting styles as seen Star Wars, Empire and Jedi. Legendary swordsman Bob Anderson is the other guy who made the OT lightsaber duels come to life, but it is Diamond who is credited with creating the saber fighting styles known as Djem So and Soresu. As you can see from the picture above, he didn't stop at just coordinating... he also did some of the work on the films, including playing the Sand Person that fucked Luke up.
Diamond had a hand in just about everything geeky from this era, including Highlander, An American Werewolf in London, Doctor Who and Raiders of the Lost Ark (he can be seen as one of the Nazis that gets swiped off the truck as Indy tries to escape with the ark).
He might not be the most famous person involved in Star Wars, but he was a big reason why like it so much.
August 11th, 1944 - Ian McDiarmid born.
Happy Birthday to Star Wars' biggest and baddest mofo! His work as Senator and Chancellor Palpatine in the prequels is a high point for those films (we'll forgive his Wicked Witch cackling approach to Sidious from Revenge of the Sith) and his turn in Jedi is one of my favorite things from any Star Wars movie.
Despite not being as well-made as the first two films in the original trilogy, I can never shit on Jedi as much as a lot of Star Wars fans do because of the Emperor/Luke/Vader triangle. That dynamic is executed so well and much of it is because of McDiarmid's take on Palpatine. His smiling confidence is such a great choice for the big villain. He's quiet, intelligent and always seems to be 10 steps ahead of everybody.
The fact that he put Luke in a classic no-win scenario makes him one of the best villains of all time. Think about it... all we fans wanted from the very first movie was to see Luke triumph over the Empire and defeat Darth Vader, but when he comes within striking distance of the Emperor he can't take him out without sacrificing all the good he's built. It's a great dynamic.
Happy birthday, Ian. Thanks for all your work!
August 15th, 1972 - Matthew Wood born.
One more birthday and this time it's Matthew Wood, who was a sound guy that jumped into the limelight when he voiced General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith. He'd given voice to a few different characters throughout the prequels, but Grievous was big time and that got him voicing a ton of different characters in the Clone Wars series.
His legit “film” credits include two Oscar noms for his sound work on There Will Be Blood and Wall-E. Not a bad resume, eh?
August 11th, 1976 – Ralph McQuarrie finishes cover for Star Wars novelization.
It's hard to conceive of something like this happening these days, but before Star Wars was Star Wars they didn't seem to give a shit about spoilers. George Lucas' novelization (ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster) was published in December of 1976, a full 5 months before the release of the film. That'd be like if The Force Awakens novelization came out last month.
Anyway, this week in '76 the great Ralph McQuarrie turned in the cover art for the Star Wars Novelization, which is likely the first officially licensed piece of Star Wars art that consumers could buy. Neat-o!
August 12th, 1980 - Han Solo and the Lost Legacy publishes.
This was the third book in the Han Solo Adventures Trilogy. I must admit that the only EU stuff I read was Splinter of the Mind's Eye and the Thrawn books. I was never very taken with that expanded universe stuff, but reading about these early Han Solo books I kinda want to go check them out. They sound like fun, swashbuckling adventures and no matter what it's interesting reading about other artist's take on these characters before they've been fully formed in the films.
Have any of you read these? They worth the time?
August 11th, 1994 - Peter Cushing dies at the age of 81.
Sir Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing were the only well-known actors to be cast in Star Wars. They might have brought a little legitimacy to the property pre-release, but they certainly both raised the bar in the movie itself. Cushing was splendidly charming as the stern Grand Moff Tarkin. I still get a kick out of the way he rolls his Rs when talking about the “Rrrrebel alliance.”
You could write a book about how influential Cushing's work was to generations of filmmakers, but I'll just recommend that you check out either The Beast Must Die or The Skull if you want to honor the man's memory this week. Those are two of my favorite flicks of his and aren't as well known as his Dracula stuff.
August 15th, 2008 – Star Wars: The Clone Wars Release Date.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, but it's a miracle that Dave Filoni and crew survived this awful, awful movie. I'm grateful they did because The Clone Wars and Rebels have been my favorite Star Wars anything in three decades, but if you woulda told me that this week seven years ago I would have called you crazy.
Farting baby Jabba the Hutt, the overuse of cute pet names (Sky Guy... No, Ahsoka! No!!!) and a dozen other things I've no doubt blocked from memory make this film legitimately the worst theatrically released Star Wars movie ever. Thank God the series recovered almost instantly.
That's it for this week. Come on back next week, ya' hear?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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